


Sleep

by MomentsOfWeakness



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Insomnia, Lack of Appetite, but nothing graphic, mostly just Feelings, soft boys actually talking to each other, trauma aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23163316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MomentsOfWeakness/pseuds/MomentsOfWeakness
Summary: Coming back to Zadash after being kidnapped and losing Molly was not as easy as Fjord would have liked. But he's not alone any more and that makes everything easier.
Relationships: Fjord & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> 98% of this fic was written the week after the group got back to Zadash way back in episode 30ish. It's just a little slice of how Fjord might have been coping before he ended up leaving on his own. (A couple bits are no longer canon, seeing as how it was written over a year ago.)
> 
> Also, I don't know why both CR fics I've written have 'sleep' in the title, but I'm not thinking of a new one now, it's been too long.

On the way back to Zadash they slept outside where Caleb made his little bubble every night. Even when Nott reminded him quietly, one small hand touching the edge of Caleb’s coat as he paced and muttered the incantation, “There are lots of people here you know. Too many to...sneak up on.” Caleb just paced and muttered some more and then disappeared into the bubble, beckoning them all inside after him.

They followed, one by one, every night. Sometimes Clay…Caduceus…Mr. Clay would come too, sometimes he’d stay outside and watch the stars. He was warm enough, he said, with his fur and his armor. Fjord thinks maybe he was just giving them some space.

It was cold this late in the year and this far north but in their quiet little bubble - everyone a little smushed, feet everywhere, arms spread out, little bits of everyone touching little bits of everyone else - it was cozy. Nice.

Fjord…didn’t sleep much.

He rested beside his companions every night, tried to get comfortable, tried to close off the thoughts pouring through his mind over and over like a rhythm, a performance he had seen too many times and knew by heart, but his head was too loud and everyone was too close and not close enough all at once.

So he lay there with his friends - the people he had drank with, fought with, bled with - he lay beside them in the night and listened. He listened to Jester’s soft, bird-like snores and Nott’s high, whistling breaths. Beau mumbled in her sleep and Caduceus, when he joined them, had a low, rumbling sort of sound deep in his chest that filled the whole bubble.

Caleb didn’t make any noise at all. Didn’t snore or talk, barely moved except to sometimes reach out for something that wasn’t there, fingers curling around soft fur that was gone. Once, in a panic, Fjord had shaken him awake because it was dark and loud and Caleb wasn’t moving not even a little and he had seen others that didn’t move in the night and then they were taken away and he couldn’t, not again, he had to wake him up, had to-

Caleb shot awake like a man pulled from a dream he didn’t want to be having and immediately backed away from Fjord, eyes darting back and forth through their small little bubble of calm in the night.

“What, what is it, what is happening?”

Fjord regretted it the moment Caleb spoke. He was fine. Of course he was fine, he was just sleeping. People sleep and then they wake again and they’re still there, no one’s taken them away in the night. That’s what usually happens. People just…sleep.

“Sorry,” he said, waving one hand through the air as if to erase what he had just done. With the other he wiped at his face, trying to brush away the embarrassment, the still lingering fear. “Sorry, I…I thought I heard something outside. I…but it…it was nothin’. Go…go back to sleep. Sorry.”

Caleb stilled for a moment. His head cocked to the side as if he was listening for the thing Fjord had heard, but there was nothing out there. He nodded, slapped a hand out awkwardly to pat Fjord’s shoulder but missed and hit his arm with a loud smack. Nott stirred and so did Beau but they didn’t wake. Jester slept like the…well, she just slept. It’s what people do.

“Don’t worry, big guy,” Caleb said, his soft, Zemmnian drawl comforting in the stillness as he lay back down next to Nott. “Better safe than sorry, ja?”

“Yeah.” Fjord settled back down too, head pillowed on the lumpy body of the bottomless bag, and stared up at the stars until dawn. When Jester rolled over into him during the night and wrapped strong arms around his stomach he just stayed there. Let her sleep.

\---

It was different when they got to Zadash. That first night…no one wanted to sleep. They were drunk, everyone but Jester, who still danced and sang and twirled through the streets like she was. They had needed to flee the city guard when Beau’s fireworks and Nott’s glowing little body had caught the wrong kind of attention.

They had gone to the baths next, gotten another drink while Mr. Clay had marveled at the hot water and told them about the stories he had heard of the natural hot springs in the mountains that he had never been to. The baths were followed by more drinks, more wandering, more dancing and singing and even more drinks.

It was exactly what Molly would have wanted.

But eventually they came back to the same inn they had stayed at the last time they were here, the same Dragonborn behind the counter selling drinks. It was late, or early, however you wanted to look at it. They were all shit-faced. Fjord’s gullet was churning and it reminded him of the contest in Hupperdook. He never thanked Molly for getting him back to their room.

Their room.

How had they always ended up together? Process of elimination, he supposed. But it had been a good few weeks. Molly was actually a quiet roommate when he came back alone. They would ready themselves for bed, bid each other goodnight and just…sleep. In the morning Molly would do whatever it was he did with his swords and Fjord would watch in idle curiosity.

It was almost like having a brother. At least what he knew of brothers from the stories he had heard from the other sailors. Tales of small rooms bursting with too many kids; families with more mouths to feed than food but always companionship, always someone to get into trouble with.

It had been nice.

The first night back in Zadash he had to get himself to his room, no one there to pick him up and get him there if he passed out in the water-closet. He was drunk enough he didn’t notice Caduceus come in. He certainly didn’t notice Jester or Beau either.

The girls were in the bed with him when he woke, mouth tasting like death and head pounding like he had been run over by a horse. He slipped out of the bed, sliding out from between them and down to the end so he wouldn’t wake either of them as he got out. He nearly smiled when they both instinctively filled the space he had left and latched onto each other but his head was pounding and smiling took too much effort.

While he watched them Jester made a small, distressed noise as she cuddled into Beau and Fjord frowned. Caleb was right, he knew. No one made it through what they had been through with a smile on their face and a dance in their step. She was masking her hurt with her usual sunshine and sugar. It wouldn’t last forever. They would be there though, when it all came crashing down.

Caduceus slept on as well and Fjord really did smile at the thought of the giant Firbolg waking with his first ever hangover. Molly had been through everything, fit all the life he could into 2 short years, and now they had a creature that had lived for seasons and seasons and had experienced next to nothing. It would be…interesting.

As Fjord left the room to go find something to rinse the taste from his mouth he nearly tripped over something strung across the base of the doorway. A quick glance showed him a hint of silver glinting in the early afternoon light and down the hall another door opened with a bang against the wall.

He jumped at the sound and turned to see Caleb, fully clothed with scorching gauntlet outstretched, standing in the doorway. Nott peeked out around his legs with her new crossbow in hand.

At the sight of Fjord standing in the hall, safe, un-accosted, Caleb quickly lowered his hand, hiding the gauntlet behind his back like a little boy caught stealing cookies from the jar.

“You’re awake.”

Fjord nodded slowly, head pounding harder with each small shake, and quietly closed the door. Who was this man who threw himself in front of potential danger for a friend? What had happened while they were gone?

“Food?” was all that Fjord could get to come out of his suddenly dry mouth.

“I…yes. Yes, that sounds good.”

“Should we invite the others?” Nott asked. “Beau probably needs more pocket bacon.”

Caleb closed and locked the door behind him, stringing his wire across the frame before walking over and checking the one concealing their sleeping friends. Fjord thought of Jester sleeping soundly curled up with Beau and shook his head.

“Let them rest. Last night was…a lot.”

“Yes,” Caleb agreed with a solemn not. “Mollymauk was a good fr-person. But perhaps we should not celebrate his philosophies quite so much.”

Fjord chuckled and was rewarded with the smallest hint of a smile at the corner of Caleb’s perpetually downturned mouth as they headed toward the stairs that led to the common room.

They ate breakfast – or lunch depending on who you asked – in mostly silence. Fjord let Nott steal all his bacon and watched as she tried to sneak the various meats off of the plates of the few other patrons in the dining area. She got through three before she was caught, scrambling back to pout at their table as Fjord and Caleb turned their bodies just enough to let the angry dwarf know that his snitched chicken was not worth the fight. The dwarf grumbled back to his table and stabbed morosely at the buttered carrots on his plate, leaving them in peace.

“You did not eat enough,” Caleb said quietly as he settled back into his seat, handing Nott a handkerchief to store her pocket meats in. “You haven’t all week.”

Before Fjord could answer Caleb had pulled out one of his books and was pouring through it as if he didn’t have it memorized, taking notes on a mostly filled sheet of paper.

He watched the wizard for a moment before his turned back to carefully scanning the room; front door to staircase to back corner to kitchen and back around again.

He had a bet going with himself about how long Caleb could stand to wait before he was scouring the city for enchanted paper to buy with their new gold. No bounty was worth one of their lives, but they had it now none the less and there were things that needed buying. Things to protect them, things to make them stronger.

_This won’t happen again_ , Caleb had promised in that accursed dungeon.

Fjord was sure he was right. They wouldn’t let it. Not again.

***

The girls and Caduceus woke sometime later, Jester as chipper as ever, Beau as grumpy as ever, and Caduceus just seem confused by his aching head. He seemed to be that way a lot though. He had two ways of being as far as Fjord could tell; confused and entranced. Fjord wondered how he was going to survive with that much naivete.

“I believe we have a fair bit of coin burning holes in our pockets,” Fjord said after they had a chance to eat. Nott had given her bacon to Beau - to replenish her supply, she said - and had happily accepted the bit of beef that Beau gave her in exchange, stuffing it back into her pocket with the other pieces of meat.

Everyone’s eyes lit up as they quickly finished their meals and their tankards – a bit of the hair of the dog as it were – and scrambled to get their packs and pouches from their rooms. As they poured out of the Leaky Tap into the now familiar streets of Zadash Jester’s eyes grew huge and she clasped her hands beneath her chin.

“Caduceus has never met the Pumats!” she exclaimed

A tiny, cruel part of Fjord wanted to point out that Jester had spent the past week practically replacing Molly with their new friend, filling the hole of one colorful stranger with another. But he didn’t say it; just watched her grab Caduceus’ huge hand and pull him down the street toward the Invulnerable Vagrant. He had to admit he wanted to know how the two would interact.

***

Slowly.

That’s how they interacted. Very…very slowly. Fjord had never met two - five?- more calm, easy-going people in his life. He wondered if it was a racial trait - maybe all Firblogs were like this - he had only met these two… five… whatever.

A few endless minutes of careful, laid-back conversation had Jester getting restless so Fjord suggested he take everyone who wasn’t buying magical items to the pastry shop. They had promised Caduceus they would get him a donut after all.

Caleb, who was being helped by another Pumat to get his paper and ink, turned and watched them a moment when he heard they were leaving. He looked like he wanted to say something, but quickly closed his mouth and turned back to Pumat number two or three, Fjord couldn’t tell which.

Nott looked at Caleb, then back at Fjord and the girls who were halfway to the door already. She put the enchanted pearl necklace back on its stand and slipped over to Jester.

“You’re…leaving?” she asked, looking back at Caleb again, but his back was to the four of them, fists clenched tightly at his sides as he bargained with the simulacrum in front of him. “Is that safe?”

“We’ll be fine, Nott,” Fjord promised, raising his voice just a little so Caleb could hear too. “We’re in the middle of the city. There are crownsgaurd and people everywhere. We’ll be fine.”

“Cities aren’t always safe, you know,” Nott protested, her bat-like ears wiggling in distress. “We were nearly eaten by a spider in this city. There was an attack on the city. People stole priceless items that shouldn’t even be in the Empire from this city. City’s aren’t safe just because there’s more people in them.”

Beau crouched down next to Nott so they were eye to eye. “I’m with them this time. Empire kid, remember? I grew up in cities like this. I won’t let them get ambushed again.”

“Yeah,” Jester added, pulling a flower out of somewhere and tucking it behind Nott’s big ear. They stopped wiggling immediately so the flower wouldn’t get dislodged. “We’ll be back lickety-split and we’ll bring you something to eat that is as sweet as you.”

Nott pouted, much like she had a few hours ago when she had been caught stealing. Sometimes she was wise beyond her short years, and sometimes she reminded Fjord that she was only 8…6…9? Not that old.

“If you get taken again we’re not coming for you a second time, you know,” she told them haughtily, turning her nose up at them. “It’s far too much trouble.”

“You’re lying,” Jester stated. Then she kissed Nott on the tip of her nose and pulled Fjord and Beau out the door toward the pastry shop in the Tri-Spire district.

***

When they finally came back after Jester had sweet talked the bakery owners into making a fresh batch of bear-claws just for her - she had recently been kidnapped you know, she had informed them to garner sympathy - Caleb, Nott, and Caduceus were waiting outside the Vagrant. Fjord could smell the strong, rich incense pouring off of Caleb from where he had stuffed all of his packages into his coat.

So that was why he hadn’t brought his cat back. Must have been out of supplies.

“You guys been waiting long?” Fjord asked as Jester passed out the cooling pastries and eagerly watched Caduceus for his reaction.

The firbolg’s mumbled ‘oh…oh this is good, this is very good’ nearly drowned out Caleb’s quiet ‘An hour or so, no big deal.’

Fjord reached out and plucked a piece of Caleb’s donut, which was being held carelessly in his gloved hands as if he forgot he was supposed to eat it, and popped it into his mouth. He had already had one, piping hot from the oven, but Jester wouldn’t let him have another until she had given Caduceus his. Now he wasn’t so sure there would be any left when they were done. He’s sure Caleb doesn’t mind sharing.

“You could have gone back to the Tap,” Fjord said around a mouthful of the flakey, cinnamon-y treat. He happily accepted the half that Caleb tore off and handed to him.

“You were expecting us to be here, so we stayed here. We didn’t mind.”

“We were explaining all about sex to Mr. Clay while we waited,” Nott interjected with a grin.

“Nott, you did not!” Jester gasped in horror while Beau did a pitiable job of hiding her laugh at poor Caduceus’ confused look.

“We were admiring the late-blooming flowers in the shop across the street…” he explained in his low, slow way, pointing to the flower shop on the other side of the cobble road.

Jester admonished Nott for her joke, and for trying to corrupt Caduceus without her, and started to drag everyone down the street again to some unknown destination.

“I know what sex is, you know,” Caduceus said as they wandered down the road. “Everything in nature reproduces.”

“But have YOU ever done it?” Jester demanded.

They were too far away for Fjord to hear his reply. When he turned to Caleb, who had avoided Jester’s grasping hands and seemed content to watch his friends wander off a short distance with a barely there smile playing at his mouth, Fjord grew bold and swung an arm around the other man’s shoulders.

They tensed beneath him immediately, but Caleb didn’t move away or ask Fjord to stop so he carefully steered him down the road after the rest of the group.

“It is working,” Caleb said after a particularly jovial laugh from both Jester and Beau.

“Yeah,” Fjord agreed, his arm slipping off of Caleb’s shoulders with a gentle pat on the back in parting. “Yeah, it’s workin’.”

***

Without the aid of drink, sleep wouldn’t come that night. The bed was either too big or too small. The room was too cold or too hot. The night was too loud or too quiet.

It was as if the world was all too much, but too much of what Fjord couldn’t figure out.

Well past midnight he rose quietly from his bed and slipped from the room. He had asked Caleb to set the wire so it wouldn’t alert the wizard to Fjord’s comings and goings.

“It’s not that I care if you know where I am, I just…I don’t wanna wake you every time I get up to take a leak, you know?” Caleb had given him that same closed off, nonchalant look that he had sent their way at the Vagrant as the three of them had left. _I am not comfortable with this_ , it said. But the wizard didn’t know how to say it out loud so he had only nodded and redone the wire on Fjord and Caduceus’ door. Now it would only alert him if someone who was not one of them entered or left the room. He didn’t change the wire on the girls’ door.

After leaving his room Fjord did indeed use the washroom to relieve himself, but instead of heading back to the bed he clearly needed to be in he wandered down to the common room on the bottom floor in the hopes of finding a distraction. _Not THAT kind of distraction_ , he thought to the lewd inquiries Jester certainly would have made if she was there.

The distraction he found was in the form of his wizard friend, hunched over the table closest to the fire with his greatcoat off and draped over one of the unused chairs - a rare occurrence and probably only a concession to the heat of the flames. He was transcribing slowly and carefully into his spell book, his eyes transfixed on the paper, completely unaware of the world around him.

Fjord walked quietly over to his table and stood on the other side, watching Caleb work. He remembers the first day they met, when Caleb showed them a bit of magic, child’s play really, at the inn in Trostenwald. Fjord had been so impressed with the ease and confidence in which he had used his abilities.

He was still impressed, every damn day, not just with Caleb but all of them. With Jester and her optimism and growing sense of responsibility, with Beau and how she was slowly learning how to be a person and not just a jagged edge of resentment, with Nott who walked into the Sour Nest without a drop of liquor in her (according to Beau) and was still so brave.

They’d all come a long way in two fuckin’ months.

“You are staring.”

Caleb’s voice interrupted Fjord’s thoughts and he was embarrassed to admit that he startled a bit. He sat down quickly to mask his indignity and peered across the table at the page Caleb had just finished. He must have been down here for hours then. Each page needed to be done perfectly or the spell wouldn’t work, so they took time.

“What’s uh-what’s that you just finished there?”

Caleb smiled. “Something good. Something very good. It will help us, I hope.”

He didn’t give Fjord any more than that, instead turned back to the page and began gently blowing on the new ink to help it dry. Fjord didn’t mind the lack of answer. He knew there was a lot Caleb was still hiding from them, most of them, but Fjord was starting to believe that it was just…habit; that he just didn’t remember how to open up any more. They’d work on it.

“You’re not sleeping,” Caleb stated after another minute of silence.

“No.” The fact that he was down in the common room instead of in his bed was a pretty good indication.

“You have been not sleeping a lot.”

“Well, I mean…”

“Just like you have been not eating.”

Fjord sighed heavily, one hand rubbing over his face in frustration…exhaustion…something. He could feel the slowly healing tusks when his hand passed his mouth. They were growing quite a bit, had been since the others had convinced him to leave them be in the temple, and were starting to push against his lower lip.

He didn’t know what he would look like once they grew large enough to be seen; he’s kept them at bay for too long, since before adulthood. Jester had said he would still look handsome. So had Caleb. He tried not to think about it too much.

“I don’t…I mean, it’s not…”

“I understand.”

Something about the way Caleb said those two words - not like sympathy, not like you would say to comfort someone - but like he meant it, made Fjord pause. He stopped worrying his bottom lip, thumb sliding away from the jut of the new tusks, and turned to Caleb.

He was staring at his book again, ink stained fingers fidgeting with the edge of the paper over and over. He did that a lot when he was nervous, those small repetitive movements, like he was trying to give himself something to think about other than what was in his head.

“I…was in a…hospital. For quite some time. It was not a good place. They did not…well, they didn’t do a lot of things they should have, and they did do a lot of things that they shouldn’t. When I…got out…I couldn’t remember to eat. I had gone without so often it just…made sense that it kept happening.

I would see people eating…people in inns after a long day’s travel, families in the market sharing a sweet…and I would think ‘oh yes, I’m supposed to do that too’. But then…I wouldn’t. I think, now, that perhaps I was…punishing myself.”

“For bein’ sick?”

There was a long, weighted pause before Caleb said, eyes downcast to the table and body still as a stone, “It was not that kind of a hospital.”

The moment Fjord understood Caleb’s meaning he wanted to press, ask a dozen questions. It explained so much, but...the tightness around Caleb’s eyes and the way his hands clenched, fingers turning white, in his lap kept Fjord’s mouth shut.

The why and when and how, that could all wait. Caleb didn’t tell Fjord this because he wanted to, but because he thought Fjord needed him too; needed to know that someone else understood all the loudness in his head.

“I…I failed them. I failed myself. And yeah, maybe there’s a part of me that feels like I need to make amends for that but…I’m not _trying_ to starve myself. I’m not trying to stay awake either. I just…”

“Can’t.”

“Yeah.”

They sat in silence for a moment, Caleb carefully checking over his new inscription while Fjord simply sat, happy for the quiet that didn’t leave him anxious. He wanted to press this sudden openness in his friend, ask how he got better, how he put the memories behind him, but he knew it would likely close him off instead so he kept his tongue.

“I’m gonna head out in the morning,” he said after a while, voice low to preserve the calm. “Take off back towards home and see if I can find any answers to some questions I’ve had for a while.”

“You’re…leaving?”

Caleb’s face had turned nearly instantly into a mask of nothing, no emotion, just a stiff neutrality like he had in the shop when they left to get the sweets.

“Just for a little while. I mean, we were gonna stick around the city for some rest, right? I just feel like my time would be better spent lookin’ into a few things is all. I’ll be back.”

“Well, if you need to go you can. You have no ties here. If your answers lead to other things, you should follow that. You have to do what is best for you, right?”

“Caleb, I’m gonna come back.” He wanted to reach out and touch the other man, lay a hand on his shoulder or brush the soft, red curls from where they had fallen in front of his face. But he didn’t.

“I’m just saying…we all have things we want to do. Those things…might mean leaving. At some point in the future. Or now. The girls will take it hard, I think, but…we would understand. Our little band of adventurers won’t be together forever.”

Fjord thought, briefly, that it was odd that Caleb didn’t offer help. That his response was to so quickly give Fjord an out. _We all have things we want to do._

Caleb had seemed to have one foot out the door since the beginning, like he was just waiting for the right time to bolt. But Fjord had thought…well, wouldn’t this have been the time? If they had no ties to each other, why did he come for them?

Fjord studied Caleb for a moment, took in his blank features and restless, twisting hands.

_Liar_. He thought, but he wasn’t sure if Caleb was lying to Fjord or himself.

“Well, for now this is, I think, where I belong. I’ll be back. Even if I find some answers. I think these things we need to do…that they might just be easier if we do them together.”

Neither of them said anything for a while, Caleb looking at his book and Fjord looking at him. The Caleb abruptly closed the tome, tucking it away into its holster at his side.

“Why don’t you come bunk up with Nott and I tonight,” Caleb offered as he gathered the rest of his things. “Maybe something a bit more…familiar might ease your mind.”

Fjord would feel embarrassed at the relieved sigh that escaped him, but he was frankly too tired. “That’d be nice, Caleb, thank you. Caducues is a good guy but he can be a bit…loud at night.”

“Ja, I’ve noticed,” Caleb laughed as they headed toward their rooms. “I’ve been contemplating commissioning a Silencing spell scroll from Pumat.”

Fjord sucked in a breath as their feet hit the stairs. He could see it in his mind’s eye, the back of a hand hitting Jester’s cheek without a sound, his own body falling to the ground with no crunch of grass or thump on the hard-packed earth, Yasha’s mouth open wide in a scream that never touched his ears.

“No,” he said, a little too quickly, a little too loud in the late night.

He instantly felt guilty at the way Caleb’s mouth snapped shut and the mischief left his eyes. He told jokes so rarely and Fjord had just ruined this one.

“I just mean…I…I’m sure I’ll get used to it is all. I appreciate the offer though.” He gave Caleb a wide smile, maybe a little too big, it was a small joke after all, but it earned him a tiny uptick at the corner of Caleb’s mouth and he considered that a win.

Tucking into the extra bed in Caleb’s room that night did help to calm the racing need for _something_ in Fjord’s heart. Nott was curled into Caleb, tiny whistles filling the quiet and Caleb was turned on his side facing Fjord, that same stillness from the road that was a little unnerving, but Fjord counted the breaths as his chest rose and fell in the moonlight _1…2…3…_ until he fell asleep too.

***

“I will message you every day,” Jester promised the next morning as Fjord mounted one of the bedraggled mares they had taken from the Iron Shepherds.

“And remember, when you hear her messages you _can_ reply to them,” Nott reminded him from behind Jester’s skirts. One tiny green hand was clutched in the blue fabric, but her eyes were like burnished steel, resolved to watch him leave.

It hurt to have that reminder that they had all lost so much. But that was why he was leaving. He needed to find the answers to Vandrin’s death. He had to put his old family to rest, before he could truly be a part of this one.

“I’ll remember. And if I get kidnapped, will you come for me?”

Jester’s hands flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide. “Fjord, don’t even joke about that!” she protested, her voice a little shrill.

“Damn it, Fjord, why do you gotta be like that?” Beau shouted from her place in the inn doorway. One shoulder leaned casually against the frame but her whole body was taught like a bowstring, ready to snap into action. “Now she’s gonna worry the whole time. She’ll be manic until you get back, you know.”

“Sorry, Jester. It wasn’t funny.”

Jester turned her nose up and looked away down the street, as if dismissing him. “You will come back though, right?” she asked, her words a contradiction to her dismissal.

“I’m comin’ back. I promise.” It was the most sincere thing he had said in a long while.

“Okay then.” She turned back towards him, her eyes now barely holding back tears. “You may go now. Goodbye.”

He leaned down and ran a knuckle across the apple of her cheek, smiling when her skin turned just a slightly darker shade of blue. “Goodbye, Jester. Bye, Nott. Beau.”

Jester sniffed and patted his knee, Nott waved, and Beau gave a small nod in his direction, a slight pinch between her eyebrows.

“Goodbye, Caduceus.”

“Huh? Wha-oh! Bye now!” The firbolg waved in his direction then went back to studying the mushrooms that had grown out of a crack in the cobblestone.

The group in front of him was missing bright orange hair and a tattered coat, but he had wanted to leave early and Caleb had just begun his spell to call back Frumpkin when Fjord was packing his bags. Well. He’d be here when Fjord got back.

Fjord gently pried Jester’s hand away from where it had clenched around his tunic and with one last wave to the group he was off.

As he pulled away from the small cluster of people that had come to mean so much to him in such a short amount of time he felt the tell-tale tingle at the back of his skull followed by a sharp Zemnian accent sliding through his mind like fingers through still water.

_We’ll save you if you get kidnapped again. You can reply to this message._ Fjord smiled as the horse clopped down the street away from the inn.

“Thanks, Caleb. I’ll see you soon,” he replied.


End file.
